August 1, 2009

My First Quilt

I hope I will get to see everyones first quilts one day. Let me show you my first quilt today. I made my first quilt in 1988 when we lived in Port Moseby, Papua New Guinea. It was a king-size quilt. I think, many new quilters make large quilts because they do not know how much work is involved, or because they are only working on one quilt! Needless to say, I did not pick up quilting again until 1992.

I found a very old quilt book at the local library and I fell in love with the nine patch pattern on it so that I decided to make a quilt. Being a dressmaker I already know how to sew, so that was not a problem. The cotton fabric was readily available because the local ladies wear marry blouses that are made from printed cotton. The fabric was not as good as the quilting fabric we find today, but it was good enough for me at the time. I set to work cutting paper templates and using it to cut pieces from different fabrics I have bought. I then machine pieced the quilt top. I followed the pattern I saw in the library book except for the colours and fabric. You can see the result for yourself in the photos below:

This is a close-up photo of the blocks. I hand quilted along the seams with less than quarter inch away from the seams. I quilted without a hoop of course, and the stitches are not very small, but hey, it was my first quilt! I finally completed the quilt in November 1989.

Here is how it looks on our king-size bed. We used this quilt on our bed when our children were young and they used to jump and roll all over it. The cheaper fabric did not wear well, and as a result they are some tears on some of the blocks. The colours have also faded quite a bit too. Now I would like to see some of your first quilts too.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

A wonderful quilt. I think my favorite thing about a quilt beyond it's practical use is you can choose any fabrics you want and either make precise planned quilt or a random quilt and both are equally pleasing to the eyes. I love old quilts too. There is so much history in them. Great job on your first. I'll have to dig up pics of my first... a bear paw. Boy did I learn a lot with that one.

Anonymous said...

A very nice quilt, I love the design, I have posted my very first quilt on my blog today for you to look at. I am not a very experienced quilter as I have only just started to learn, so mine is only a simple 4 patch square thingy..... and tied, not quilted!!! I hadnt got the confidence for that. hugz xxx

Micki said...

That's a lovely first quilt!it looks so pretty on your bed!
Micki

Queen Of The Armchair aka Dzintra Stitcheries said...

Your first quilt has so much history to it Nat and that makes it very special...and looks cool too...Have a great Sunday...Love Dzintra♥x

Frog Quilter said...

Looks very nice. I'll bet it's real comfy..

Mescrap said...

This is beautiful !!!
The quilt looks excellent on the bed.

Lurline said...

It is still looking wonderful and holds lots of memories!
Hugs - Lurline♥

Tonya Ricucci said...

lovely quilt and oh, what a lot of work. king size and had quilted. oh my!

Browndirtcottage said...

Wow...this is wonderful to see Natima.....LOL....my first quilt is at least 25 yrs. old and all it lacks is me finding the right binding to put on it!!!

Anonymous said...

This is a wonderful first quilt! I think you did an amazing job. I plan on quilting my first quilt soon.

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